Week in Review

Susan Rice said it. Hillary Clinton said it. And President Obama said it. Over and over again. The attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi was due to a YouTube video that incited a spontaneous protest that resulted with an attack on the mission with assault weapons and pre-sighted mortars. Highly improbable but that’s what they said. Over and over again. It wasn’t a terrorist attack. Because President Obama killed Osama bin Laden and won the War on Terror. The 2012 campaign slogan was Osama bin Laden is dead. General Motors is alive. And al Qaeda is on the ropes. On the run. No longer a threat to the United States. That’s why we had to reelect President Obama. For he sure couldn’t point to any successes when it came to the economy.

Of course beefing up security in Benghazi would have harmed that narrative. So while the British were pulling out of Benghazi because a resurgent al Qaeda was making it too dangerous the U.S. State Department denied Ambassador Steven’s request for additional security. Because a resurgent al Qaeda was making it very dangerous in Benghazi. But the American people didn’t hear that. No. All they heard was that Osama bin Laden is dead. General Motors is alive. And al Qaeda is on the ropes. On the run. No longer a threat to the United States. Of course the murder of four Americans in Benghazi said otherwise (see Former CIA official: No politics in Benghazi memo by DONNA CASSATA, AP, posted 4/2/2014 on Yahoo! News).

The CIA’s former deputy director said Wednesday he deleted references to terrorism warnings from widely disputed talking points on the deadly 2012 Benghazi attack to avoid the spy agency’s gloating at the expense of the State Department…

Morell, a 33-year veteran of the agency who has served six Republican and Democratic presidents, insisted that politics had no bearing on the revisions to the talking points and said he was under no pressure to protect either President Barack Obama or then Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton…

The White House, wrapped up in a fierce presidential campaign, made only minor editorial changes to the talking points, according to the onetime CIA official.

The intelligence community’s talking points, compiled for members of Congress, suggested the Sept. 11 attack stemmed from protests in Cairo and elsewhere over an anti-Islamic video rather than an assault by extremists.

Republicans have accused the Obama administration of trying to mislead the American people about an act of terrorism in the final weeks before the November election.

Morell deleted references to extremist threats linked to al-Qaida in versions of the talking points that were used by Susan Rice, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in a series of Sunday talk show appearances. Morell said his actions were driven by the information provided by intelligence community analysts and the Defense Department.

The deleted references to terrorism in the talking points were not political? His revisions to the talking points were not to protect either President Barack Obama or then Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton? Funny. As that’s exactly what they did. They protected President Obama and helped him win reelection. And they protected Hillary Clinton. Who is now the Democrat frontrunner for 2016. Well, so far, at least.

The left is still trying to blame 9/11 (the first one in 2001) on President Bush and Condoleezza Rice. For missing the signs that al Qaeda was a threat. And that something big was coming. Can you imagine the fury over Benghazi had it happened under President Bush’s watch? While they were in a campaign season? There would be no talking point revisions. They would have lambasted President Bush and Condoleezza Rice. The press would have torn into this story like a pack of hyenas tearing into a gazelle. The media would have crapped all over the Bush administration. But the Obama administration? When the president, Hilary Clinton and Susan Rice all lied about a YouTube video? Over and over again? When the CIA revised the talking points so it didn’t sound like there was a problem with terrorism anymore? All lies. And a huge cover-up. But we hear nothing but the sound of crickets from the media.

Sure, they can say it wasn’t political. But the result of those revisions was very political. It helped President Obama win reelection. Because he had al Qaeda on the run. Which he didn’t. In fact, his foreign policy has made the world a more dangerous place. For al Qaeda is resurgent everywhere. In Egypt. Libya. Syria. Iraq. Afghanistan. Yemen. And elsewhere. Oh, and Iran is working on a nuclear bomb. And Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea to Russia. Because he could. This stuff is happening in part because people voted for President Obama believing the lie that al Qaeda was on the run. When it wasn’t. And because we reelected President Obama his failed foreign policy continues. As the bad people of the world stand up and take notice.

The United States of America under President Obama is weak. It may talk the talk but it sure doesn’t walk the walk. So the bad guys are getting bolder. Knowing the time is right to push the United States around. For we are a sleeping bear that just can’t be wakened. Apparently.

Lines at London’s Heathrow Airport are “much longer than usual at this time of the year” because of fears that Al Qaeda terrorists have developed explosives that can be implanted in people, The Mirror reports.

Body scanners can detect items that people are carrying with them, but they aren’t able to catch devices that are inside of the body.

U.K. officials reportedly have “credible intelligence” that terrorists are plotting attacks on airplanes flying out of London, and security staff have been told to “pay particular attention to females who may have concealed hidden explosives in their breasts,” an airport staff member told The Mirror.

This cannot go well.

“Hello, ladies. Those are some nice breasts you have there. Let me study them a moment. Yes. Nice. Large. Shapely. Firm. Supple. Hmm. Could they be hiding a bomb? This will require a closer look, yes? Perhaps a look beneath your brassier. To look for any telltale signs of a recent surgery. Or a gentle hand massage. A kneading of the breast tissue. To make sure there’s nothing but breast tissue there. But there’s nothing to worry about, ma’am. For I am a trained airport security screening professional. Rest assured I don’t enjoy playing with women’s breasts all day long.”

Yeah, right. The first time some college coeds come through the screening line it’ll be like a Russ Meyer film. Of course, imagine the fallout should they single out a woman in Muslim garb for closer scrutiny. The firestorm would be so great that you can just imagine that Muslims will not be searched as much as some other women. Such as the ladies that could have had a starring role in a Russ Meyer film.

Week in Review

Jimmy Carter was a very weak president. When he took over fighting the Cold War he stopped fighting it. Choosing détente instead. Making nice with our enemies. And weakened the U.S. military. It got so bad that the Soviets didn’t believe he had the guts to launch his nuclear weapons. Thinking that perhaps MAD (mutually assured destruction) wasn’t so assured anymore. And began formulating a nuclear first-strike plan. Bringing the United States close to nuclear war. Because our enemies viewed him as weak.

The highest-ranking Soviet-bloc intelligence officer ever to defect to the West claims in a new book that anti-American Islamic terrorism had its roots in a secret 1970s-era KGB plot to harm but the United States and Israel by seeding Muslim countries with carefully targeted propaganda.

Yuri Andropov, the KGB chief for 15 years before he became the Soviet premier, sent hundreds of agents and thousands of copies of propaganda literature to Muslim countries.

‘By 1972,’ according to the book, ‘Andropov’s disinformation machinery was working around the clock to persuade the Islamic world that Israel and the United States intended to transform the rest of the world into a Zionist fiefdom…’

Andropov began his leadership of the KGB just months before the 1967 Six-Day War between Arabs and Israelis, in which Israel humiliated the key Soviet allies Syria and Egypt. And he decided to settle the score by training Palestinian militants to hijack El Al airplanes and bomb sites in Jerusalem.

But more shocking, Andropov commissioned the first Arabic translation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a Russian-forged 1905 propaganda book that alleged Jews were plotting to take over Europe – and were being aided by the United States…

Kennedy-era Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev’s disinformation campaigns ‘widened the gap between Christianity and Judaism,’ according to the authors. And ‘Andropov’s disinformation turned the Islamic world against the United States and ignited the international terrorism that threatens us today.’

This is the enemy that Jimmy Carter was trying to make nice to. One that was widening the gap between Christianity and Judaism. And one that was turning the Islamic world against the United States. Which the Soviets did well. Giving us the mess we have today.

The Soviet Union was officially an atheist state. Who shut down the Russian Orthodox Church. As they wanted no other powers or influences over their people’s lives. Which is why they had no problem putting the major world religions at war with each other. And explains why today the Russians always seem to fall on the side against the U.S. and Israel. For they worked hard to foment that anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment. And Vladimir Putin was once KGB. The machine that created this sentiment. And apparently he still wants to collect the dividends from their old Soviet-era allies.

So it appears that the War on Terror is nothing more than the Cold War redux. It’s not a rogue power that filled a vacuum left by the Soviet collapse. But a power that the Soviets created maturing at the time of the Soviet collapse. Too late to help them not lose the Cold War to Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. But perhaps not too late to further expand Russian power over their Soviet-era allies. Thanks to that anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment inflaming the Islamic world. The Soviets made them our enemy. Not any YouTube video. Or George W. Bush. And no amount of making nice to them is going to change that.

Week in Review

Candidate Barack Obama called George W. Bush a cowboy. Whose swaggering foreign policy inflamed our enemies. And distanced our allies from us. That was no way to conduct foreign policy, said then candidate Obama. When he got into office he would engage in diplomacy. Talk to our allies. And even to our enemies. Instead of dictating our policy to them. By doing this he was going to make the world a safer and friendlier place. Because it would be a Bush-free world. But things haven’t been working so well for President Obama as Candidate Obama thought they would (see Analysis: For Obama, a world of Snowden troubles by Warren Strobel and Paul Eckert posted 6/23/2013 on Reuters).

Since his first day in office, President Barack Obama’s foreign policy has rested on outreach: resetting ties with Russia, building a partnership with China and offering a fresh start with antagonistic leaders from Iran to Venezuela.

But the global travels on Sunday of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden highlight the limits of that approach. Leaders Obama has wooed – and met recently – were willing to snub the American president.

The cocky defiance by so-called “non-state actors” – Snowden himself and the anti-secrecy group, WikiLeaks, completes the picture of a world less willing than ever to bend to U.S. prescriptions of right and wrong…

If Russia allows Snowden to continue on his journey toward Ecuador, it could wipe out what is left of Obama’s policy, dating from 2009, of trying to “reset” relations with Moscow after they turned chilly under his predecessor.

Wow. With friends like Russia and China President Obama doesn’t need any enemies.

So the love-fest didn’t last. Candidate Obama had traveled the world where people received him as if he was the second coming of Christ. He read soaring speeches from his teleprompters. And promised to be nicer to both friend and enemy than George W. Bush. But all he got from it was learning the meaning of the old adage that nice guys finish last. Because those who only respect strength don’t respect nice guys.

President Obama finally joined the Europeans in Libya. And what thanks did he get from the newly freed Libyans? On the anniversary of 9/11 they killed our ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi.

Americans continue to die in Afghanistan. Power in Egypt went to the Muslim Brotherhood. Who has deep ties to Iran. Our mortal enemy. The Arab spring movement President Obama endorsed by throwing our longtime ally Hosni Mubarak under the bus was more of an Israeli-American winter. The democracy that was spreading in these predominantly Muslim countries was a move towards a very conservative Islam. Becoming more like Iran. Who, once again, is our mortal enemy. And less like the democracy enjoyed in Western countries.

And now this Edward Snowden matter. Where all of that ‘soft-love’ of the Obama foreign policy not only distanced our friends from us. But it made them jab their finger in our eye. To use the words of New York Senator Chuck Schumer. Something that didn’t happen that often in the Bush presidency. For he projected strength. And though our enemies may have hated him for it. They did respect him. As did our friends.

Week in Review

Candidate Barack Obama was brutal when attacking Bush/Cheney. Talk of torture, warrantless wiretapping, rendition, drone attacks, Guantanamo Bay, the Patriot Act, etc. Bush/Cheney were war criminals. Running a shadow government outside the rule of law. And the Constitution. This was all going to change under an Obama administration. Who was going to have the most transparent presidency in recent times. And would order the cessation of all those bad things Bush/Chaney were doing. But when you compare the two administrations it’s getting harder to tell them apart. And people are even noting this to the president (see I’m no Dick Cheney, Obama insists by Shaun Waterman posted 6/18/2013 on The Washington Times).

President Obama bristled Monday night at comparisons with the Bush administration in his first interview addressing the National Security Agency’s broad gathering of data about Americans’ phone calls and online communications.

“People say, ‘Well, you know, Obama was this raving liberal before. Now he’s, you know, Dick Cheney,’” the president told PBS’ Charlie Rose, referring to the former vice president.

Mr. Obama distinguished the programs his administration ran from those launched by President Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, which were carried out under the president’s wartime authority as commander in chief.

Bush/Cheney used drones. The Obama administration has, too. Even killed more people with them in his first 4 years in office than Bush/Cheney did in their 8 years. Even killing an American or two on foreign soil. Something Bush/Cheney didn’t do.

Bush/Cheney used warrantless wiretaps on international telephone calls to a suspected terrorist. The Obama administration is collecting and storing metadata on all U.S. domestic telephone calls. And they’re working with Internet providers to collect information on people’s Internet activities. Collecting it and storing it. So they can look at it later. With a court order, of course. From a court especially designed for the government’s eavesdropping activities. The FISA Court.

According to Wikipedia, in 8 years Bush/Cheney averaged 1793.75 requests to the FISA court and was rejected 0.070% of the time. In 4 years of President Obama his administration was averaging 1627.25 requests and was rejected 0.015% of the time. So the Obama administration was averaging about 10% a year less than the Bush/Cheney. But Obama only had one request denied in 4 years compared to Bush/Cheney 10 denials in 8 years. Even though President Obama won the War on terror in May of 2011 with the killing of Osama bin Laden. So the FISA court became more of a rubberstamp under the Obama administration than it was under Bush/Cheney.

During Bush/Cheney the IRS did not harass their political enemies. The IRS did under the Obama administration. Bush/Cheney did not use the Justice Department to investigate journalists reporting unfavorably on them. The Obama administration did. Despite the mainstream media clearly favoring President Obama over Bush/Cheney.

Bush/Cheney. President Obama. It’s getting harder to tell these administrations apart. Unless you look at the economy. Yet Bush/Cheney was evil incarnate. While we need to trust our government under President Obama. Even though he is a little more Dick Cheney than even Dick Cheney was at times.

Week in Review

The Obama administration says they need to track and store the metadata from our phone calls to mine data that will help them catch terrorists. They’ve been doing this for a long time. Starting long before the Boston Marathon bombing. Yet they couldn’t catch these terrorists before they acted. Despite all of that data mining. Which is pretty sad considering they come from a hotbed of Islamist activity. Dagestan. Which is near Chechnya. Another hotbed of Islamist activity. Which has been a thorn in the side of Russia ever since the fall of the Soviet Union.

And as if this wasn’t enough, and don’t you think it should be, the Russians said, “Hey, this guy Tamerlan Tsarnaev? He’s probably a freaking terrorist. You should watch this guy. Before he kills someone in America.” And the FBI said, “Thanks. We’ll look into it.” Which they did. And found nothing. Despite all of that data mining (see Sensenbrenner: Data Mining Missed Red Flags in Boston Bombing by Lauren Fox posted 6/10/2013 on US News & World Report).

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., the author of the Patriot Act, says he thinks NSA’s dragnet data mining may have obscured clues that Boston Bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were planning to carry out a deadly attack…

Before a 2011 trip to Chechnya and Dagestan, a region from which Tamerlan sought asylum in the U.S., the Russians sent a notice to the FBI that the eldest Tsarnaev brother might have ties to radical groups in the region.

The FBI looked into it and said nothing suspicious materialized after an initial investigation. The FBI looked for things like “derogatory telephone communications, possible use of online sites associated with the promotion of radical activity and associations with other persons of interest,” the FBI said on its website. After that, the FBI did not continue looking at Tamerlan Tsarnaev because the Russian government did not respond to requests for more information and because, an FBI source told the New York Times in April, the agency didn’t have legal grounds to continue keeping track of Tamerlan.

No legal grounds to track Tamerlan? But they have all the legal grounds to track all of our phone calls? It just makes you wonder why they’re collecting all of that data. And what they are using it for. For Tamerlan Tsarnaev all but had a blinking neon sign on his head saying he was an Islamist terrorist who was here to kill Americans. But they just couldn’t see this. So if they’re not tracking terrorists with all of that data mining who are they tracking? U.S. citizens? To identify their political enemies? Like the Tea Party. So the appropriate actions can be taken? Like those partisans in the IRS took against the Tea party?

Week in Review

“Osama bin Laden is dead. And General Motors is alive.” That was why we were to reelect President Obama. Because he won the War on Terror. Al Qaeda was in retreat. And the Islamist world loved America. Except in Benghazi. Where an al Qaeda affiliated group killed our ambassador and three other Americans. But apart from that the Islamist world loves America. Because they love President Obama (see Iraq says Qaeda poison gas cell busted in Baghdad by AFB posted 6/1/2013 on Al Arabiya News).

Iraq’s defense ministry said on Saturday that it has broken up an Al-Qaeda cell that was working to produce poison gas at two locations in the capital for future attacks at home and abroad.

The group of five people built two facilities to produce sarin and mustard gas, using instructions from another Al-Qaeda group, spokesman Mohammed al-Askari told a news conference.

The members of the cell were prepared to launch attacks domestically, and also had a network to smuggle the toxins to neighboring countries, and also to Europe and North America, Askari said.

I guess these Islamists didn’t get the memo. Silly them. They don’t even know that they love America now.

Guess al Qaeda reversed their retreat. And took it up a notch. No longer inspiring ‘lone wolfs’ to bomb innocents at things like marathons. Now they’re working on true weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Imagine that. Chemical WMDs in Iraq. Who’d a thunk it? Interesting that they didn’t have them when George W. Bush was president. But they have them now during the Obama presidency. Did President Obama make Iraq a more dangerous place than President Bush? Perhaps.

Benghazi, IRS scandal, trying to muzzle the free press and now chemical WMDs in Iraq. And it’s only year one in the President’s second term. This is probably making one more person disappointed that Mitt Romney didn’t win the last presidential election. President Obama.

Week in Review

President Obama’s Treasury Department’s IRS is caught harassing perceived enemies of the Obama administration. To help stifle their free speech during the 2012 election. But they deny it was political. And apologize (see IRS apologizes for targeting conservative groups by STEPHEN OHLEMACHER posted 5/10/2013 on the AP).

The Internal Revenue Service apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was “inappropriate” targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.

IRS agents singled out dozens of organizations for additional reviews because they included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their exemption applications, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups. In some cases, groups were asked for lists of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said…

The IRS is an independent agency within the Treasury Department that enforces the nation’s tax laws. Revelations that the agency was targeting political groups because they were affiliated with a movement that is critical of President Barack Obama could become a new headache for the White House…

IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress in March 2012 that the IRS was not targeting groups based on politics.

How can this be anything but politics? And a gross misuse of power?

The Obama administration would identify organizations with ‘Tea Party’ and ‘patriot’ in their name as enemies of the Obama administration. For with every shooting or bombing on American soil the go-to people are the ‘anti-government’ Tea Party and patriot people. Radical conservatives as they call them. Of course it hasn’t yet turned out that a mass murderer was a radical conservative. They have been either radical Islamists. Or people with mental health problems.

After what we’ve learned about the Benghazi cover-up this past week is it really hard to believe that the Obama administration used the power of the IRS against political opponents? President Nixon did that. So why not President Obama?

Both President Obama and President Nixon lied to the American people to improve their reelection chances. Who would have thought that the guy who wanted to be compared to FDR would actually be more like President Nixon? Of course, with President Nixon there was a crime. A break-in. But no one died. As they did in Benghazi. Because the Obama administration just couldn’t grant the requests of Ambassador Stevens for more security after President Obama declared the War on Terror was over. For the 2012 campaign message was that ‘Osama bin Laden was dead. And General Motors is alive’. With bin Laden gone al Qaeda was defeated. At least that was what the Obama administration was saying. After bin Laden’s death there were no more radical Islamists trying to kill Americans. This was why we needed to vote for President Obama. For he made the world a safer place. And beefing up security in Benghazi wouldn’t help that message before the election. So they denied Ambassador Steven’s request. For what could possible happen?

A full-scale military assault. That’s what. Which was even worse to the Obama campaign than beefing up security. The Obama administration couldn’t have this. So they concocted the story about the anti-Islamic YouTube video and a spontaneous uprising. And when the intelligence reports came in identifying an al Qaeda affiliated terrorist group they took their talking points and edited them down. Pulling anything ‘militant Islamist’ out of them. This despite the president of Libya confirming the al Qaeda connection. This kept the Benghazi mess quiet through the election. And what’s to say they might have set the IRS on their political opponents to help keep the Benghazi mess quiet through the election?

They lied about Benghazi. So they’re probably lying about the IRS. The very same people they’re putting in charge of the funding of Obamacare. Who will be looking ever more closely at our employers. And our personal lives. But there’s nothing to worry about. For the IRS would never use their power for political purposes. Not with the most transparent presidency since the Nixon administration. Well, perhaps not quite as transparent as the Nixon administration. Then again, it’s probably one of the least transparent administrations in U.S. history. In fact, the Nixon administration was probably more transparent and honest than the current administration. Nixon may have lied. But he didn’t leave his embassy staff unprotected. So enemies of the United States could kill them. And then lie to cover it up.

Week in Review

After the Boston marathon bombing all we’re hearing from those on the left and in the mainstream media is that it was a terrorist attack. And probably not related to the bombers’ religion. Islam. Even though the bombers were ethnic Chechens. Who lived for a time in Dagestan. Where Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older brother, lived for 6 months last year. But what does that mean? It’s not like Dagestan is a hotbed of Islamist extremism (see Two militants shot dead in Russia’s Dagestan by Alexei Anishchuk posted 4/24/2013 on Reuters).

Security officers shot dead two suspected militants in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, the epicenter of an Islamist insurgency, the National Anti-Terrorist Committee said on Wednesday.

Moscow is struggling to quell the persistent attacks by Islamist militants more than a decade after it fought two separatist wars in the adjacent republic of Chechnya.

Well, I guess that’s exactly what Dagestan is. A hotbed of Islamist extremism. Nay, the epicenter of an Islamist insurgency. Where Tamerlan lived for 6 months. And from some accounts wanted to stay in Dagestan. The epicenter of an Islamist insurgency. Just so he could spend time with his mom and dad. Apparently.

At least this was what those on the left and in the mainstream media would have you believe. Because they can’t say things like ‘Islamist extremism’. ‘Muslim terrorist’. ‘Islamist militants’. Or ‘radical Islam’. For one it doesn’t fit the narrative. President Obama killed Osama bin Laden. Winning the War on Terror. And when you won that war you can’t refer to your vanquished enemy as if they still exist. So that’s one reason. Another reason is that the American left just hates Christianity so much that they want to show nothing but tolerance to Islam. Because Islam hates Christianity, too.

And then there’s that other reason. President Obama was going to kill them with kindness. Sort of like FDR with Joseph Stalin. Who was going to make Stalin like him. And once he did FDR was going to turn on that FDR charm to get whatever he wanted from him. (Ironically, it was Stalin who got everything he wanted from FDR). Which was what President Obama was going to do. For he was sure the only reason why radical Islam was attacking America was because of George W. Bush. Bush made the Islamists hate America by acting so tough and mean to them. So President Obama was going to show them the softer side America. (The side that didn’t have drones raining down death on the occasional innocent bystander). A George W. Bush-free side of America. And turn on the Obama charm. It just couldn’t fail. And it would have worked, too, if only it hadn’t failed.

Islamists hate us. And want to kill us. Case in point the Boston Marathon bombing. This despite Osama bin Laden being dead. And President Obama’s charm. In fact, they don’t respect President Obama. They respect George W. Bush. But not president Obama. Because tough and mean they respect. But displays of weakness? They look at that with contempt. Which is why terrorist activity increased during the Obama presidency. Because they just don’t respect a man dripping with weakness. And you just can’t drip more weakness than when you go out of your way so as not to offend the people trying to kill you.

Week in Review

We’ve had some people with mental health problems obtain firearms and go on shooting sprees on soft targets. Grade schools. Colleges. Theaters. High schools. The government’s answer to these? Take guns away from law-abiding people. As they don’t appear to want to track people with mental health problems. Which would be easier. Because there are a lot of warning signs. Schools complain about strange and disturbing behavior. Strange and disturbing enough to expel some people from school. But it ends there. And these people wander free amongst us. Family members have even tried to get these people committed for public safety concerns. But doing that today is so difficult that few can get people who are a danger to themselves or to the public committed. Changing this would make grade schools, colleges, theaters and high schools safer than new gun control legislation. For using guns is not the only way to kill soft targets (see Boston bombers: FBI hunting 12-strong terrorist “sleeper cell” linked to brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev by Christopher Bucktin and Andy Lines posted 4/21/2013 on the Mirror).

The FBI was last night hunting a 12-strong terrorist “sleeper cell” linked to the Boston marathon bomb brothers.

Police believe Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were specially trained to carry out the devastating attack.

More than 1,000 FBI operatives were last night working to track down the cell and arrested a man and two women 60 miles from Boston in the hours before Dzhokhar’s dramatic capture after a bloody shootout on Friday.

A source close to the investigation said: “We have no doubt the brothers were not acting alone. The devices used to detonate the two bombs were highly sophisticated and not the kind of thing people learn from Google.

“They were too advanced. Someone gave the brothers the skills and it is now our job to find out just who they were. Agents think the sleeper cell has up to a dozen members and has been waiting several years for their day to come…”

Investigators have begun piecing together how the “well-mannered” brothers of Chechen origin were radicalised. Neighbours of the family said older brother Tamerlan had recently become obsessed with Islam. He mysteriously left the US in January last year to spend six months in Russia. Yesterday senior FBI counter-terrorism official Kevin Brock said: “It’s a key thread for investigators.”

It also emerged the Bureau interviewed Tamerlan two years ago, at the request of the Russian government, but could not establish that he had ties to terrorist radicals.

This was despite his worrying Russian-language YouTube page featuring links to extremist Islamic sites and others since taken down by YouTube.

One link showed an hour-long speech by an Islamic teacher called Shaykh Feiz Mohammed, while other videos are labled “Terrorists” and “Islam”.

The radical cleric, with links to extremist British Muslims, encouraged his followers to become martyrs for Islam. He said: “Teach them this: There is nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a mujahid…”

US Government officials have said the brothers were not under surveillance as possible militants. And an FBI statement said the matter was closed because interviews with Tamerlan and family members “did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign”. But now they believe the pair, who emigrated to the United States from Dagestan about a decade ago, were part of a terror cell.

If there is a sleeper cell they may be able find a trail to them by exploring the past lives of the two bombers. There were a lot of warning signs before the bombings we missed. Perhaps we’ll be able to see them when we’re actually looking for them.

It almost appears that we have a problem looking at people. Whether they’re people with mental health problems. Or domestic terrorists. It’s as bad as our airport security. Where we’re patting down every grandmother and child. We need to start profiling people. Not so much by skin color. But by behavior. And with good questioning. “Where are you traveling? Who are you visiting? Where does he work? What’s his boss’ name? Where does his wife work? How good are you at making bombs?” Depending on the answers to these questions security either moves on to someone else. Or they pull this person aside for further questioning.

We need well-trained and highly skilled people. So we don’t turn the country into a police state. Observe everyone. Question those whose behavior looks off in some way. And read their body language. Is he searching for answers? Or do they appear too well rehearsed? Does he seem nervous? Is he avoiding eye contact? Is he sweating? Does he laugh at the bomb question? Or does he flinch involuntarily? Does he seem different from other travelers? Is he carrying a large backpack and doesn’t appear interested in what everyone else is interested in? Like a marathon? If so perhaps security should approach this person. Talk to him. Ask what’s inside that backpack. And search that backpack. You can’t search everyone standing along a marathon course. But you can have security mingling through the crowds looking for things that are not like other things.

Of course before you can do that you have to admit that there are people out there that want to hurt us. That there is a War on Terror. And not explain terrorist attacks away as workplace violence (the Fort Hood shooting). Or say that al Qaeda is on the ropes and deny additional security requests in a hot bed of Islamist activity (Benghazi). Just because it wouldn’t look good during an election campaign where a common refrain was Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive.

To fight the War on Terror will require some in government to stop putting politics first. The gun control debate is more about passing long-desired legislation than it is about making our kids safe. To prevent the senseless slaughter of innocent people by people with mental health problems it would be far more effective to institutionalize these people that are a risk to themselves and to the public. And to protect us from further acts of domestic terrorism we have to be able to say words like Muslim extremist. Militant Islamist. Islamist terrorist. For even Bill Maher has said that Islam is the one faith that has a history of killing Americans. Not all Muslims are terrorists. But Muslims carry out the majority of terrorist attacks. And until you accept that fact how are you going to defend the United States against militant Islam? For you can’t fight this war with one arm tied behind your back because of political correctness. Which means when we’re profiling people we have to look at those who are most likely to kill us in a terrorist attack. People who travel to hotbeds of Islamist activity. Those who are kicked out of mosques for being too radical. People who have YouTube pages featuring links to extremist Islamic sites. And what do these all have in common? That word the Obama administration does not like to use attached to any acts of domestic terrorism. Muslim.